Early on, Abhik Mazumder, 16, was drawn to the vast array of music his parents enjoyed. At the age of four, he began taking piano lessons. Soon, he became fascinated with classical music and its rich cultural history. Between ages 6 and 9, he performed in several acclaimed venues in New York and Vienna, including Carnegie Hall, the Haus der Musik, Mozarthaus, Prayner Conservatory, Steinway Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the Kosciuszko Foundation.
In 2009, he began studying jazz with renowned performer and educator Mark Flugge. Flugge’s stature within the Columbus jazz community provided Abhik with great exposure to the city’s jazz scene. Since that time, Abhik has been performing jazz extensively, both as a solo artist and in group settings. In 2015, he became a member of the Columbus Youth Jazz Orchestra directed by Mark Donavan. In this capacity, he has played concerts alongside renowned pianist Aaron Diehl, and at the Lincoln Center in New York City on a shared set with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra. This past September, he performed a jazz-influenced and partially improvised rendition of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Abhik has been the recipient of first and second prizes of several notable competitions as a solo pianist, including the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, AADGT International Piano Competition, OMTA Graves piano competition, the United States Virtuoso Piano Competition, and OMTA Buckeye Auditions. He won Jazz Arts Group’s Hank Marr High School Jazz Award in 2016, and, as a result, was featured as a guest artist with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra under Byron Stripling. In 2017, he won the New Albany Symphony and Columbus Symphony concerto competitions and performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with both orchestras. Abhik is also an active composer, most notably having won the silver medal at the Carol Klose/Hal Leonard National Composition Competition in 2014. He considers Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Bill Evans, and John Coltrane to be his strongest musical influences.
Abhik currently studies classical piano with Suzanne Newcomb and jazz piano with Erik Augis. In addition, he studies violin with David Niwa and plays violin in the Upper Arlington High School’s Symphony Orchestra. Outside of music, Abhik is an ardent LGBTQ ally, amateur martial artist, soccer fan, and film enthusiast.